Community engagement and public participation in research are key elements to advance clinical and translational science. Engagement of community stakeholders in the development of research is valuable and provides effective strategies to improve communication and trust among stakeholders. In order to gain the most benefit from community involvement, investigators require training in community engagement and sufficient resources to build and sustain effective partnerships. To meet the community engagement needs of Meharry;s translational research investigators, our Community Engagement Core aims are to: Specific Aim 1. Enhance the research infrastructure to support community engagement in innovative clinical and translational research. Specific Aim 2. Increase the capacity of investigators to use qualitative research methods to conduct community-engaged research. Specific Aim 3. Expand the use of communication strategies that are sensitive to literacy, cultural differences and psychosocial factors. We will leverage the ongoing efforts of the well-established Meharry-Vanderbilt Community Engagement Research Core to build upon Meharry's expertise in community engagement and health disparities in order to augment investigators' abilities to engage groups that are often underrepresented in research.